I have no idea why it is so bad, maybe population of game is going down so the match quality is bad.
It is literally the worst matches I have seen over the entire life span of this game, absolutely insane.
What is the dev team doing?
21 Likes
What are you doing? Cause my games have been just fine (as is usually the case 
)
3 Likes
Competitive but the matchmaking is 100% broken
The whole 5 vs 5 setup has just changed the entire game so that whoever gets the Tank with the most skill straight up wins the game.
I have matches when I donāt even need to play to win, my tank is soooo much better than the other tank and we are in the same rank 
It is happening frequently, there is no competitive close matches, I either win matches 3-0 or lose them 0-3. I know that Iām not a T500 player but that has nothing to do with the quality of matches that are being createdā¦ it is god awful and Iām watching streamers getting it too.
Team needs a serious overhaul and Aaron and the gang need to be replaced, because 5 vs 5 is the worst thing they could have done. They created this matchmaking and they are responsible for sorting it out. Perks havent helped with the landslide losses or win streaks people getā¦ needs to be addressed pretty urgently.
15 Likes
Oh the matchmaking is absolutely awful. Got placed into a Gold 2-Diamond 5 match the other day (I am the gold 2), VERY fun for me getting stomped and trolled in chat all game. Just had a Gold 1-Plat 1 match and was the only gold in the lobby, got especially rolled by the smurf on the other team.
8 Likes
Smurfs are the biggest issue I think in matchmaking.. what competitive integrity is there if there are 1 or 2 people that are clearly better then everyone else in the lobby. There seems to be a crap load of new accounts the last 2 seasons with minimal playtime but dominating ranked seems pretty clear they are smurfs.
11 Likes
Games like that happen even in Top 500, so it clearly canāt just be the matchmaking. In Top 500, everyone is already among the best, and yet you still see one-sided games ā quick 3-0 wins or 0-3 losses. That alone shows how many individual factors go into every single match.
Youāve got ten completely different people playing, each with their own mindset, focus, and energy at that moment. One might be tired, another distracted, someoneās kid wakes up, someone else has music on or off, different heroes are picked, different comps, different moods.
There are simply too many variables that no matchmaking system could ever predict or balance perfectly. Thatās why every match can swing in a totally different direction, even at the highest ranks.
3 Likes
I would accept this explanation if the steamrolling didnt happen so often. Even if you take the minimum percentage people say steamrolling happens at 20% that is 1 in every 5 games. Honestly in my experience in every 3 games there is at least 1 stomp which just feels bad to play.
If it cant be solved with matchmaker then its on them to reduce the amount of stomp. Maybe format or balance or new game feature like perks are the answer. But what they shouldnt do is ignore it because they think its just how the game is lol.
3 Likes
what is your play level? in ranked that is. Also, do you play as a member of a pre made team all the time?
1 Like
I get your point ā nobody enjoys stomps. But hereās the thing: stomps exist in every competitive game, even with perfect matchmaking systems. In fact, internal data from multiple titles ā Overwatch, League of Legends, CS2, Valorant ā all show that around 20ā35% of all matches end up being one-sided. Thatās just how competitive ecosystems behave when you have humans involved.
Aaron Keller even addressed this directly in a 2023 developer update: roughly 1 in 4 matches in Overwatch are ānoticeably one-sidedā, and thatās still within expected statistical variance. Itās not a sign of broken matchmaking ā itās just what happens when performance fluctuates.
The truth is, you canāt ābalanceā human behavior. MMR systems only account for historical performance, not whether someoneās tired, distracted, tilted, or just having an off day. Blizzard has explicitly mentioned that soft factors like focus, communication, and hero synergy can impact the outcome more than a 100-point MMR difference. Thatās something no algorithm can predict or fix.
And remember what kind of game weāre talking about: Overwatch has over 40 heroes, 10 players, and dozens of maps ā which means more than 10Ā²ā° possible team and hero combinations. Every single one introduces variables that can shift a match dramatically. Even if Blizzard rebuilt the matchmaker from scratch, youād still see blowouts because perfect parity across all those factors is mathematically impossible.
he only realistic way Blizzard could ācontrolā stomps directly would be by manipulating matches in real time ā for example, giving a heavily losing team bonus health or extra damage. That would be a far heavier intervention than matchmaking tweaks, would radically change the gameās integrity, and would quickly be discovered and exploited.
2 Likes
Nah. Just have people moved lower or higher, faster. Stomps arenāt horrible, in general. Itās when it happens 10+ times in a row. Which Kellerās data says 1 in 4. But people can get 15. The MM should be pulling that person way down, to stop it. Also, their data is worthless for QP. Since it allows any rank. Which is abuse. But we canāt get that info on teams rating. So we can choose to leave or stay.
i play solo and im about as average as they comeā¦gold/platā¦US east coast
1 Like
i just play quickplay so im use to bad matchmaking but its more of a player thing also, who is trying hardā¦ who is just having fun, who is trying to learn a new hero, players with vastly different skill levels, etc..
i mean its overwatch so ā¦ the 5v5 thing yea, giga tanks were a big mistake imo and so was 5v5 but they are so stubborn to try and make it work
2 Likes
Thereās no need to sugarcoat it yall. The matchmaking is horrible.
9 Likes
That ājust move players up or down fasterā idea sounds nice in theory, but it completely breaks in practice.
If the system instantly drops you after a few stomps, youāll just start stomping other people a few games later. Then it bumps you back up, and the cycle repeats ā endless over-correction, zero stability.
MMR isnāt supposed to panic after a streak. Itās meant to find your long-term average, not your mood that day. Otherwise the game would just keep chasing noise ā and everyone would feel like theyāre being thrown into random lobbies every other match.
2 Likes
Thatās your opinion. Because what I want, is no streaks. I want WLWLWL. I donāt want 15 wins, or 15 losses. Also, Iāve played the game for 9 YEARS. Iāve been Gold the entire time. Stop trying to find my average. And stop making me fight Diamonds. I know where I belong. I donāt need some stupid system using me as a way to speed up Q times.
1 Like
The system canāt decide when you win or lose, only how evenly youāre matched over time. Trying to control streaks would mean manipulating outcomes directly, which is exactly what people claim to hate about āriggedā systems.
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Well, it technically can. Because when it has no choice to put you in a wide game. You will lose more often. Letās use this example. We are playing Basketball. Everyone on the team is 5ā9ā. You go against people the same size. But now 20 teams come in. Theyāre all 7ā0ā people. They want to play. Thatās $800 of money.
The Basketball place is gonna make. And the 5ā9ā team is the only ones there. So they have to go against them. They didnāt choose that. So what options to they have. Leave and not play basketball. Or play, and have a high chance of losing.
VS the MM isnāt allowed wide games, period. You only fight people in the same tiers. And you exit a tier. Soley on the amount of wins. What happens with this. Friends that are Gold, Plat, and Diamond. Cannot group. And games will take longer to be made. But they will be far more balanced and fair. Which is where my argument comes from. Itās okay for the MM to pick people of 15 divisions apart. But itās not okay for me to win 15 divisions apart, per game.
You arguing I shouldnāt be able to do that. Shows that itās not a good idea. Than the MM shouldnāt be allowed to do it, as well. Either the MM enforces ranks, per tier. Or I rank up to Diamond, if I win against a Diamond. And rank down to Gold. If I lose against a Gold.
1 Like
interesting. Then you are the among the lucky ones. Ive posted game codes in the past of many of my games, screenshots of scoreboards showing how bad nearly all my games are. Not saying I lose every game, my win/loss rate is actually right in line with that close to 50%, however, the method of how that happens is bizzare. Iāll win, and ill lose, but only about 10% to 20% of the games are even close, the other 80% are complete blow outs.
Itās been like this for a couple of years.
2 Likes
This is the entire MM issue in a nutshell.
3 Likes
hatās not how the system actually works. Matchmaking isnāt random ā itās based on hidden MMR, not visible rank. Ranks like Gold or Diamond are labels based on your approximate MMR, and overlap naturally.
Sometimes youāll face a Diamond-ranked player whose hidden rating is very close to yours, or a Gold whoās punching above their displayed rank. That overlap is intentional ā it keeps queues fast and matches statistically fair across the player pool.
If Blizzard forced āsame tier onlyā rules, queue times would explode, off-role matchmaking would collapse, and party play would be nearly impossible. They already tried tighter MMR brackets in early OW2 testing, and it worsened match quality because the system ran out of equally rated players.
And the āif I beat a Diamond, I should rank up to Diamondā idea ignores sample size ā a single win doesnāt define skill. You need hundreds of games to find true rating, not one good match. Thatās why the system smooths gains and losses.
1 Like